Lahore-A local broadcaster has hired a transgender newscaster for the first time in Pakistan’s history.

A journalist, associated with BBC, posted a picture of Maavia Malik and wrote “Pakistan’s first news caster on screen now-Maavia Malik.” Maavia recently walked the ramp as a showstopper for emerging designer Hamza Bokhari at PFDC Fashion Week. Pakistan’s Senate, the upper house of country’s parliament, recently approved a bill for the protection of transgender persons, empowering them to determine their own gender identity

The report of a transgender person appearing on TV as a newscaster received positive response on Twitter, with a senior blogger and a female TV anchor expressing best wishes for her. Country’s transgender population, according to the census carried out last year , stands at 10,418 - 0.005 percent of the total population of over 207 million.

Last year a court ruled that transgender people would be counted in the national census for the first time.